Worry Bytes

When God tells us in the Bible not to worry, it isn’t a suggestion. It’s a command.

Worry (anxiety) is specifically mentioned 25 times in the New Testament alone as something we should avoid. The Greek word for “worry” is “meridzoe,” meaning “to divide, to be pulled in opposite directions, to choke.”

Perhaps we wear worry around our necks after all. In the parable of the sower, Jesus tells us, “…the seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries…” (Luke 8:14). They have accepted the Word of God, Jesus says, but “they do not mature.”

Gasping for spiritual breath, worry-bound, thorny-ground Christians may survive – but they never truly thrive.